I thought I saw somewhere that he is due to take command of the 1st MEF next. Do we have donfirmation? Tough call, have him take Marines into battle or pull the colective head out of the collective butt known as the United States Naval Academy. Hmmmmm, I vote combat. After the MEF, maybe he can take over the academy. I think that will make the first Marine to take over there. I think they have always had Naval Officers commanding there.
It pains me to think that the USNA will continue to make the same mistakes. That is not bringing in someone who was not of that culture. You do not change a culture by inserting someone from it. Their vision is too myopic and is colored by their own experiences and nostalgia. If they do not want a Marine General in charge. Then promote someone who is not a graduate into the position. Then you are assured of fresh new ideas and an ability to mold the command into something different. Next, they need to poll the staff on needed changes and not just the Brigade. Find out what needs to change from people that actually have life experience not kids barely out of puberty and with no fleet experience.
Let me just toss this one in on the thread of the USNA "issues:"
In Nov 97, Bill Bennett gave this speech at the USNA: "Does Honor Have a Future?"
I didn't find it on the net, but in a reproduced copy a friend had. I typed it all in and I think it had answers in advance for the recent dust ups at Annapolis.
Too bad they forgot that history....
I am not a smart guy but from where I sit it seems to me USNA (plus USMA and AFA for that matter) is losing both its warrior ethos and moral compass. Might be a good idea for the leadership to go on a fact finding visit to VMI or Citadel - don't hear about this level of stupid stuff going on down there. Those schools are models of the academies in a way - they have rich traditions, an all military corps of cadets that lives on campus and they don't have the distractions of a co-ed, non-ROTC student body skulking about. They seem to be graduating solid officers with proper values. Might even take a trip down to Aggieland and see how a large public school with a co-ed (kind of) student body and a large corps of cadets interact with each other. Who knows, the ring knockers might get some ideas on how to fix the sorry moral state of affairs in Annapolis but it's doubtful this will happen IVO USNA leadership's general stuck-upitty-ness and the "we're superior in every way" attitude they impart on the midshipmen. At any rate they better do something because USNA is starting to lose its relevance. They are no longer the moral beacon of the sea service, promising to impart a warrior ethos on those who attend, as they once were. ROTC can do it cheaper and can meet the needs of the military with quality, highly educated officers that don't carry the emotional PC baggage the newly minted ring knockers seem to be carrying. I will now use my recent L6S training I came up with the following business analogy - USNA is becoming the academic equivilent of GM in a world of Toyotas and Hondas. Ooooh, nice.
WESTPAC Warrior:
Well, speaking from experience at the Military College of South Carolina, there is an institution a short bus ride (for knobs) away called the College of Charleston, fully equipped with those wonderful things called co-eds, and there are plenty of little beer joints between the two schools.
On the other hand, it seems by the lack of bad news, that the integration in the Corps has gone well and there's something worth studying in that.
I also know the '76 class of NROTC pumped out the greatest number of Navy and Marine officers after the USNA. I'm thinking it was around 100 and about 58 were Marines. One of the other bennies is we got trained and drilled like Army units, so it helped years later when you talked to your brothers in tree suits.
You have some really good points. Maybe you ought to oil up your typewriter and crank out this idea for a Proccedings article.
Curt, did you ever visit a little basement bar near frat row in Charleston by the name of "PK's"?
(hey, that was about history....but back on topic)
i>Historical study is an essential part of becoming an effective decisionmaker. It complements and reinforces force-on-force exercises, by building the experience base essential to effective combat decision making. Even more important, it provides a frame of reference to understand the complex, lengthy conflicts we are engaged in today. We should not punish those who puruse it as an adavnced degree.
Col. T.X. Hammes
The Sling and The Stone
This guy is needed to fight the war on Islamo-fascists not nursemaid a sick institution..
Maybe after.
B2
Sid,
The sad thing is, I have watched some of the finest officers I have served with spiked by their communities by getting PhD's in non-tech areas. These are guys that get it, but are going nowhere. One of them managed to get a Special Mission command that will give his a 50/50 shot at CAPT, but besides that - will go nowhere of influence. I know other guys that wouldn't know squat about the Vietnam vs. China history, or Arab from Berber, and don't have the performance or depth as the SM guy...but are golden boys with Operational Command. Go figure. Being social and sending the right Christmas Cards to the right people is part of the game, but when it becomes the tie-breaker between OC and SM, that is sad.
The Citadel had its share of "incidents", they just never got the media attention the Academy did.
(Plus we had a member of our Board of Visitors get arrested for soliciting a hooker......something real men can relate to!). The preferential treatment given to the Commandants daughter as the first female cadet (but a transfer student no less therefore she did not do the whole four years), the girl who got pregnant but was not booted out, just listed as medically disabled, an alledged rape out in town, the girl who posed semi-naked in a Citadel uniform (My moral outrage did not stop me from downloading the pix though.......I'll be happy to pass the URL) there are others. VMI has had some too. The sickness is at all the military colleges, its just more pronounced at the service academies because of the direct connection to the services and their willingness to cave in on fundamental issues of readiness and discipline.
Point being is that when the colleges moved from the system that worked under single gender to mixed gender and then pretended they had the same system as before, THAT's when they began downt the road of self delusion.
However at least at the Citadel they are still arguing about keeping shreds of the "system" and that may be a big difference. Also, unlike USNA they have to be responsive to their alumni.......they pay the bills.
Save the males!
Thnx Cdr. If things go (any more) badly in Iraq do you think things may change even a little?
Or will it take a Kasserine Pass or Savo Island to knock some sense in some heads?
The Navy will have to suffer a Kasserine Pass or Savo Island, I am afraid. The lack of focus on fundamentals will bring it about. I will tell you how it will happen too. Either by mine, torpedo, or a steady attack from the air that will bleed the anemic AAW weapons load we have down to Winchester before a reload. That is how.
Iraq is not a Navy war, and will not force hard thinking and decision making. Spending money sending junior Flag Officers to learn B-school lingo for two weeks when the fleet if vanishing before their eyes proves that focus is not there. The Navy is not acting like it is in a war. GTMO, CJTF-HOA and IA in AF and IQ were forced on the navy by the tip of the sword at the small of the back. Yes, I am grumpy today. Last week I found out about a good officer cut off at the knees because he made the mistake of publishing under his name a very good work that was "off message." Very grumpy.
Problem is; will we have the depth of resources to absorb that kind of wakeup call?
"Last week I found out about a good officer cut off at the knees because he made the mistake of publishing under his name a very good work that was "off message."
Sure hope it wasn't the Ensign who wrote the article in the July Proceedings suggesting the DDG-1000 not be built.
More from TX Hammes:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
wp...1401522_pf.html
Sid,
There is one bucket of FOD in that reading list: Islam: A Short History , by Karen Armstrong, 2000. I read that early this year. If you use that as a guide, you are lost. Being that General Zinni liked it, no shocker there. Mmm, maybe I should review the piece of Shi'ite....
I saw one entry on that list I highly encourage. It is easy to read and in pre-9-11 fashion presents a cultural anthropological study that explains a lot.
I'm talking: "The Arab Mind" by Patai. No Bernard Lewis here (although he is excellent, too) or another history of the western world and Islam put out in last few years.
I have visited Cairo, Alexandria, Tunis, Karachi, Mombassa, Kuala Lampur, Mindano,Oman, the Gulf States, etc. and all of Patai's points are held up to the light as true.
If you're tackling this list I recommend reading IT first.
Unrelated- I was on a cruise once where we went to Haifa, Israel for a week (SOCAL-like with halters, guns everywhere, food in plenty, trees, water) , back to sea for night CQ for 4 days, and then into Alexandria, Egypt for a week (pyramids and the most extreme poverty I have ever seen in all my life). Stark contrast.
B2
Let me guess the officer was "off message"in Proceedings....where there are not supposed to be "messages".
B2: I agree about the book "The Arab Mind". I read it during Desert Storm so that I might gain insight into the culture. SO very different from ours! An EXCELLENT read even though it was written a long time ago. I highly recommend it.
I also read "Arab Mind" and if I'm not mistaken, he also wrote "The Jewish Mind." He was a sociologist/anthropologist who specialized in that area of the world. He spoke Hebrew and Arabic and I think he was Israeli, but it's been awhile since I read his stuff.
Skippy,
You are right again!!
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